The Time Stone and Garbage Disposal
by sudoku
Summary: "I'm going to allow that. If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?" Strange nodded. "OK." "What?" Tony didn't expect someone so readily accepted his proposal. "What? Why?" Bruce sounded as confused as Tony. An alternate scene if Stephen were to accept Tony's proposal (with some twists).


-Unbetaed and not a native speaker so please kindly point out any mistakes  
-Warning: languge, infinity war spoilers.

* * *

Tony was surprised as the two magicians in robes (some people just didn't have any fashion sense but they couldn't be all like Tony Stark) explained about the Infinity Stones and the powers they wielded. He of course was familiar with the infamous Tesseract and the Mind Stone. There were four more of them and some lunatics apparently wanted to play the cosmic version of _Catch 'em All_. "Tell me his name again."

Bruce answered with a haunted expression, "Thanos. He's a plague, Tony. He invades planets. He takes what he wants. He wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York. That's _him."_

Tony spoke softly to himself. The nightmare of his past six years had come true._"_ This is it…" With a louder voice, he asked,."What's our timeline?"

"No telling. He has the Power and Space Stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole _universe._ If he gets his hands, on all six Stones, Tony... "

Strange said in his oh-so-serious tone. "He can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of."

Tony leaned against a nearby cauldron, stretching like he's about to go for a run. His plan to jog was interrupted by Strange after all. "Did you _seriously_ just say _hitherto undreamt of?_"

Not to be outdone, Strange replied, "Are you _seriously_ leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?"

"Is that what this is...?"

Suddenly his arm was smacked. Tony turned around to look who did that. He was not sure because Strange didn't look guilty but he was the closest to Tony. Perhaps Strange was a great poker player. Or perhaps Wong was the one who smacked him. But again he was leaning against the Cauldron so he was not so innocent after all. He looked Strange up and down to see if there was any tell (there wasn't any, Strange stared at him looking perfectly innocent). Perhaps he could work with this pompous guy who could keep up with his snarks. "I'm going to allow that. If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?"

Strange nodded. "OK."

"What?" Tony didn't expect someone so readily accepted his proposal.

"What? Why?" Bruce sounded as confused as Tony.

"What?! Stephen, We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone. With our lives. How could you just throw it away?" Wong apparently was equally confused although it was hard to tell with his expression. Perhaps Wong was the best poker player in the world and Strange learned from him.

Strange just shrugged. "We can't destroy the Infinity Stones. At least I can't. I have tried. Don't look at me like that, Wong" Wong's expression looked the same to Tony but perhaps Strange could pick something that he couldn't. "I know it's indestructible but I have to try. You should know how I'm by now. I'm sure the Time Stone will survive a plain garbage disposal. We could set it as a trap."

Tony perked up at that. He rubbed his hands together. "Now, we're talking."

* * *

Tony rolled his eyes as he walked out of the Sanctum along with Strange, Wong, and Bruce. People were running away from a donut shaped alien hovering above New York's skyline. An alien ship in New York, must be another Tuesday.

"Friday, evac anyone south of 43rd Street, notify first responders."

"Will do."

Strange made some gestures. Two orange circles snaked around his hands. A bust of orange energy came out of his hands to blow away the dust created by the alien ship. After completing such an amazing feat, Strange winked at him.

The audacity of that guy! Such a show off! But Tony was secretly impressed, that guy could also _do_ that instead of merely creating portals and making balloon animals. He smirked in response and turned to their incoming ETs. One very thin guy (he was being generous in his description) with a very flat nose and one very tall creature (there was a limit to his generosity) with a big hammer came out.

Following the _Villain 101 Handbook_, the thin guy started to monologue. "Hear me, and rejoice. You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful, that your meaningless lives are now contributing to."

Tony was so sick of aliens and monologues."I'm sorry, Earth is closed today. You better pack it up and get outta here."

The thin guy turned to look at Strange."Stonekeeper... " He gestured towards Tony._ "_Does this chattering animal speak for you?"

Strange took a fighting stance. "Certainly not. I speak for myself. He conjured up a big box right in front of Tony."Stark now."

"Friday, activate Disposer Mark 1 now."

"Right away, Sir."

The box opened up at the side facing Strange. He made some gestures to open the glowing Time Stone. He then grabbed the necklace housing the Time Stone and threw it toward the hole."If you want it so badly, go get it yourself."

The thin guy dived through the hole to follow the necklace. "Time keeper, you will pay for this." He disappeared through the hole.

The big creature was unsure what to do. Strange and Wong helped him by binding the guy using some magical whips and threw him through the hole as well. Stephen then did some circular motion to close the portal masking as a hole.

Tony added unnecessarily at this point,"It means get lost, Squidward! I can't believe it works."

Strange looked equally surprised. "Neither can I."

Tony approached Strange and raised his right hand. "This deserves a high five."

"I'm not highfiving you."

"Come on, you want to. See, our first collaboration works."

Strange sighed and raised his slightly trembling and scarred hand that Tony just noticed now (Tony was intrigued) to high five him. . "OK. But I still hate you."

"No, you don't."

Wong cleared his throat. They immediately put down their hands."Strange, it's good that we've gotten rid of the immediate threats but Thanos won't stop until he gets his hand on the Time Stone. Are you going to retrieve the Time Stone from that portal?"

"That stone that went through the portal is not the real Time Stone."

"What?!" Tony, Bruce and Wong said at the same time.

Strange merely shrugged. "We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone. With our lives. I won't just stick the real Time Stone through a garbage disposal or a portal."

Tony stared at Strange, "But you acted like it was the real Time Stone and you made sure that my Disposer Mark 1 will one hundred percent work. It was a _fake_ the whole time."

"Well, if everybody knew it was a fake, they wouldn't act convincingly. We need to act convincingly."

Tony shook his head. "Friday, please remind me never to play poker or chess with Doctor Strange. On the plus side, our plan works. So where is the real Time Stone?"

Strange merely smiled. "I've hidden it."

"Duh. You just make yourself the biggest target in the universe."

Strange nodded confidently. "We'll deal with them when they come. As you said, we work well together. Don't we have the Mind Stone to protect as well?"

"On it." Bruce said as he dialed Steve Roger's number. Tony had given Steve's number to Bruce. He was still bitter but Strange had convinced him it was best if they worked together.

Wong mumbled something about fixing the roof in the Sanctum and making extra protection for the idiotic Master of the New York Sanctum and the Time Stone. He created a portal and left.

Tony smiled "I think he is warming up to me. Just out of curiosity, where do you send those two aliens? Why couldn't we just use a real garbage disposal to get rid of them? That was not even the real stone so there was no risk."

"I sent them to a place full of butterflies, flowers, rainbow, and unicorns. Don't worry, they wouldn't be able to harm the unicorns and butterflies. There are plenty of food there as well so they won't starve as long as they are vegetarians. I've sworn the Hippocratic Oath so I can't purposely harm another living being if I can help it."

"You and your oaths. So I guess happy endings for all, huh. Although I belief those two aliens would hate that dimension."

Strange shrugged. "Well, I try my best not to harm anyone but I'm not a fairy godmother."

Tony smirked. "Strange, you're such a pompous drama queen but you're growing on me like a toenail fungus."

Strange winked again. "The feeling is mutual. Now let's save the Time Stone and the universe."

* * *

**Notes:**

-I only watched Infinity War twice in the cinema last year so I forgot a lot of details. I got the conversation from the following script:  
transcripts dot fandom dot com/wiki/Avengers:_Infinity_War  
I rewatched the scene to look at action and the wink from: youtube dot com/watch?v=a6yI39IZoRY  
So if I got some facts wrong, please let me know.  
-Stephen had been wearing the fake Time Stone the whole time so pretending like this I think was not OOC for him.  
-Constructive feedback and criticims are welcomed.


End file.
